"I will not," Santos told reporters when asked about whether he will step down amid the calls for him to resign from the House.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Nassau County Republican Committee, who backed Santos’ campaign, said the congressman disgraced the lower chamber and called on him to resign.
28 December 2022, 13:30 GMT
In December, Santos admitted to lying on the campaign trail about parts of his biography, including his professional and educational experience.
Last month, federal prosecutors launched a probe into the claims against Santos. On Monday, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a non-partisan government watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission claiming Santos and his 2022 campaign committee also violated campaign finance laws.
"On January 9, 2023, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that recently elected Rep. George Santos and his 2022 campaign committee, Devolder-Santos for Congress, violated federal campaign finance laws by engaging in a straw donor scheme to knowingly and willfully conceal the true sources of $705,000 that Santos purported to loan to his campaign," CLC said in a press release.
According to CLC, in addition to "fabricating virtually every aspect of his life" on the 2022 campaign trail, Santos also appears to have violated federal campaign finance laws "by knowingly and willfully concealing the true sources of his campaign’s funding, misrepresenting how his campaign spent its money, and illegally paying for personal expenses with campaign funds."
Santos claimed to have loaned his campaign $705,000 during the 2022 election, the watchdog noted.
"But it is far from clear how he could have done so with his own funds, because financial disclosure reports indicate that Santos had only $55,000 to his name in 2020," the complaint said.
Santos’ claims of having earned millions of dollars in 2021 and 2022 from his supposed consulting business, Devolder LLC, are "vague, uncorroborated, and non-credible in light of his many previous lies," it argued.
CLC said the overall circumstances instead indicate that still-unknown people or corporations may have illegally directed money to Santos’ campaign through Devolder LLC. The complaint explains that the Santos campaign appears to have routinely falsified its disclosure of disbursements.
The campaign reported 40 disbursements between $199 and $200, including 37 disbursements of exactly $199.99.
"The sheer number of these just-under-$200 disbursements is implausible, and some payments appear to be impossible given the nature of the item or service covered," the complaint said.
In addition, the watchdog alleges, some of the reported disbursements made by Santos’ campaign appear to violate federal laws prohibiting the conversion of campaign funds to personal use, including disbursements to pay rent on a candidate’s personal residence.